In the past few years hydroponic gardening has become increasingly popular with novices, and has attracted commercial attention as well. The concept of hydroponic gardening, which is to provide inert root support structure such as rocks or gravel with nutrient saturated water but no soil is coming of age with the advent of a generalized regional water shortage affecting the Western United States and the rapid development of the barren Middle Eastern oil lands.
The traditional hydroponic garden includes broad beds containing gravel and rocks to accomodate many plants. The hydroponic liquid, or fertilizer-saturated water, fills these broad plats twice a day or so and then permits them to drain off again so the plant roots do not remain submerged.
Plants grown in such a system develop faster and more perfectly than plants grown in the fields, and the general principles of hydroponic gardening are unquestionable. There remain, adaptations of structure to the general principle which introduce hydroponic gardening into realms of new convenience and special application.